On his first day in office, President Biden signed an order that revoked the permit for the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. Now House Republicans are practically salivating at the chance to use Biden’s move as a 2022 campaign cudgel against Democrats.
Biden’s Jan. 20 executive order revokes the permit that was granted to TC Energy Corporation for the Keystone XL pipeline. The proposed 875-mile pipeline, years in the making, would carry a heavy crude oil mixture from Western Canada to Nebraska, where it would connect with another leg stretching to Gulf Coast refineries.
The administration of President Donald Trump approved the project, but Biden nixed it because, it said, a pipeline rupture posed imminent environmental threats. But for House Republicans, within striking distance of winning a House majority in 2022, it’s an opportunity to paint the Biden administration as a job-killer. Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, the GOP campaign arm, argues the change will cost many American jobs.
“House Democrats are going to pay the price for their job-killing, anti-energy agenda,” Emmer told the Washington Examiner in a statement.
Keystone is part of a broader House GOP strategy of challenging Democratic lawmakers and candidates on energy policies. While the Biden administration argues a climate crisis is urgent and must be dealt with immediately, Republicans contend thousands of jobs are at stake in the shift away from traditional energy extraction methods.
The NRCC is hitting several House Democrats from Texas for not opposing the Biden administration more vocally over fracking, including Reps. Colin Allred, Henry Cuellar, Lizzie Fletcher, and Vicente Gonzalez.
Democrats hold a slim House majority since Republicans surprised political observers and flipped over a dozen House seats in the 2020 election cycle. There are currently 211 Republicans, 221 Democrats, and three vacancies in the House, with 217 votes considered a majority until there’s a full roster of lawmakers again.
Republicans are already targeting seats where they think Democrats will feel the heat for backing Biden’s halt of Trump administration support for Keystone and the Dakota Access Pipeline, as well as ban fracking on federal lands.
“The polling we did last cycle showed us in places like Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, just how devastating this job-killing, anti-energy agenda is,” Emmer said. “That’s why we won.”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy made clear Republicans’ focus on energy issues for the looming campaign cycles with a recent trip through Midland and Ashton, Texas.
“These are good-paying jobs, high-paying jobs, and now I’m watching them [being taken away],” said McCarthy, whose hometown of Bakersfield, California-based district is itself heavily focused on oil jobs. “I’m not quite sure who President Biden is listening to, because he’s not listening to the workers, he’s not listening to the union workers who were building the pipeline.”
On the legislative side, Republicans began writing up pro-Keystone XL pipeline bills. Rep. Bryan Steil, a Wisconsin Republican, along with a group of colleagues, introduced the Keystone XL Pipeline Construction and Jobs Preservation Act.
The legislation has no chance of passing while Democrats have control of both chambers and will most likely not even be heard in committee. However, 86 House Republicans are co-sponsoring the legislation, including McCarthy and Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana.
The bill also has support from 14 Senate Republicans, including Energy and Natural Resources ranking member John Barrasso of Wyoming.
The bill would authorize the construction and operation of the Keystone pipeline and would make clear that a presidential permit is not necessary for its construction, connection, operation, or maintenance.
